Too dangerous for a woman? Sexism in China’s booming tech industry means many women are blocked from succeeding in the industry.
Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

When Lanxuan* graduated from high school with top marks in chemistry, she believed she was as intelligent and promising as the boys in her class. But several years later, the chemical engineer has found the glass ceiling impossible to break through in China’s male-dominated tech industry. She was branded “too ambitious for a woman” by her colleagues.

She joined an electronics company a few years ago, working in a lab providing tech support services. Since then she has worked hard – and seized every opportunity to prove her ability. She even sent her baby girl away to her parents in another province so she could concentrate on her career. Now she regrets it. Not only is she far from her daughter, she has been held back in her job simply because she is a woman.

Sexism, however, hasn’t quenched her desire for success. She recently convinced the company management to let her take on more responsibilities. But with the promotion came more struggles. She was still expected to do her old job in the lab on top of her new role, with no extra pay.

The customers, usually men, also treated her differently because she was a woman. “If I asked for a chemical for an experiment, I had to wait for a long time. If my male colleague asked for it, they brought it immediately,” she says. Meanwhile, her colleagues at the lab complained of extra work due to her field trips.

Her superior, also a woman, tried to persuade her to give up the trips. “She assumed a caring tone. ‘The job is too dangerous for women,’ I was told. ‘You are a woman, why bother?’ It was suppression in the name of caring,” says Lanxuan. She didn’t give up the field trips, so eventually her superior went to her husband and asked him: “Why do you let your wife do this?”

Lanxuan was fed up: “For years, I have felt an invisible ceiling above me. Invisible but stifling.””

Tian Xiaole*, a software engineer in Shenzhen, also found that women have fewer opportunities to be hired, recognised and promoted in tech. “Sometimes I wish I were a man,” she says.

She recently went for a job interview and the hiring manager was more concerned about her marital status than her ability. In Chinese culture it is common for women to put their roles as a wife and mother before their careers. After marriage, women are expected to juggle their careers with having children and looking after the family, including the older generation. While maternity leave is available, it is seen by companies as a hindrance and as a result some explicitly state that they don’t hire women for certain positions.

In September 2017, Xu Xin, a master’s student studying artificial intelligence at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, was rejected for a job by a live game streaming platform. “They said that they don’t want women,” Xu Xin says. “For the first time in my life, I realised sexism does exist.”

Anson Tang Guoyong, founder of HRoot, an HR media company based in Guangzhou, confirmed that sexism is common among Chinese technology companies: “They filter out female candidates when going through resumes. The situation is worse now that China’s two-child policy is in effect.” That’s because companies fear a second child will mean more maternity leave and further time off to fulfil family responsibilities.

Tang’s own views mirror that of some men in the industry. He believes the sexism is understandable, “because the work is too intense for women, who are physically less strong, and not as good at logical thinking as men.”

Li Bo, a software development manager with one of China’s biggest technology companies, disagrees. She says she works as hard as her male colleagues and leads a team of 12 software engineers, 10 of whom are men.

Her career path has not always been smooth. She has faced criticism about being too “close to the boss”, but Li Bo says she doesn’t let the comments get to her – instead, she works harder to prove and improve her excellence.

Her friends often joke that she is the Chinese version of Sheryl Sandberg. Like the chief operating officer of Facebook, Li Bo wants to set an example for women working in the Chinese tech sector.

While recognising the obstacles set by men for women working in technology, she thinks some women hold themselves back in their careers by associating femininity with weakness and inferiority. She is determined to shatter this mindset.